Sharks in need of sup­port

“There was only 15-20 at train­ing last Tues­day and they are the same play­ers week in and week out - we signed up 110-115 play­ers, where are they all?” Cobb said.

“What I can put it down to is that a lot of play­ers, they got no com­mit­ment and no heart; their heart isn’t in the right place.”

Pitt blames cited a lack of spon­sor­ship as another rea­son why the Sharks’ fu­ture is on the line.

“Lo­cal busi­nesses are not giv­ing us the sup­port, we are se­ri­ously con­sid­er­ing go­ing to big ma­jor com­pa­nies and sourc­ing our fund­ing through them,” Pitt said.

“It’s time to start act­ing like a com­mu­nity and get­ting be­hind us, we are one of the old­est, if not one of the first sport­ing as­so­ci­a­tions of this com­mu­nity.”

Cobb has also pointed a fin­ger at the Cairns Dis­trict Rugby League (CDRL) for not step­ping in and help­ing the club in its time of need.

“It goes in cy­cles and it’s a shame it’s our club this year, it’s the not-so-rich clubs, the poor clubs that suf­fer be­cause we got no money to throw out to the play­ers,” Cobb said.

“If they (CDRL) are se­ri­ous about this com­pe­ti­tion and worry about us get­ting a full team on the field, why can’t they help? They got 30-35 North­ern Pride play­ers in their squad and most of those play for fancier clubs, why can’t the CDRL step in and say go help Moss­man - it would come up a bet­ter com­pe­ti­tion that way.”

CDRL ad­min­is­tra­tor Pat Bai­ley told the Gazette North­ern Pride play­ers go back to the clubs they came from.

“Moss­man hasn’t pro­duced that sort of player as yet, Pride play­ers are al­lo­cated to the clubs that pro­duced them, we do have ju­nior play­ers in an Un­der 16s and 18s devel­op­ment squad for the Pride,” Bai­ley said.

Bai­ley de­nied claims the CDRL would force the Sharks to fold af­ter the re­cent for­feit and lack of num­bers.

“Our aim is to help keep them afloat and let peo­ple in that area play the great­est game on the world, rugby league, we are try­ing to solve their prob­lems and not close them,” she said.

“How­ever they can’t blame ev­ery­body else for their own mis­takes.

“They got a bye this week­end, they need to re­group and play the last two games and show peo­ple that they are fair dinkum enough to go ahead in 2012.”

Pitt is op­ti­mistic about the team de­spite the cri­sis the Sharks are fac­ing.

“I know the abil­ity is here and it is just a mat­ter if ev­ery­body can turn up, if the 110 play­ers that have signed up this year turn up and have a go for the club,” Pitt said.

“We will try to fin­ish the sea­son on a pos­i­tive note so that we can look to­ward res­ur­rect­ing the club next year.”

The Sharks have a bye this week­end, a home game the fol­low­ing week­end against In­n­is­fail, and the fi­nal game of the 2011 sea­son will be against the Kan­ga­roos at Pride Oval.